Odisha reports highest single-day spike with 129 new COVID-19 cases

Bhubaneswar, May 31 () Odisha on Sunday reported its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases, with 129 more people testing positive for the infection, a health department official said.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the state rose to 1,948, he said.

Of the new patients, 119 had recently returned to the state from various parts of the country and were in different quarantine centres across districts, while 10 others were detected with the infection as a result of contact-tracing exercises, he said.

The new cases were reported from 19 districts.

The maximum of 18 fresh cases were found in Kendrapara, followed by 16 in Gajapati, 12 in Nuapada, 11 in Bolangir, 10 each in Ganjam and Jajpur districts.

Seven new cases were reported in Khurda, six each in Balasore, Sundergarh, Mayurbhanj, Bargarh, five in Cuttack, four in Puri and Deogarh, three in Keonjhar, two in Jagatsinghpur and one each in Malkangiri, Dhenkanal and Sambalpur.

With these fresh ones, the number of active COVID-19 cases increased to 889 in Odisha, while 1,050 patients have recovered so far. Seven persons died of the disease.

The state health department has so far tested 1,52,131 samples, he said.

A total of 4,641 samples were tested on Saturday, he said, adding the government has created 16,648 temporary medical centres or camps in 6,798-gram panchayats for people returning to the state.

The districts which have reported more than 100 COVID-19 cases are Ganjam (414), Jajpur (269), Balasore (152), Khurda (138) and Bhadrak (113). AAM BDC DV DV